Tea Tuesday: Inside the Spice Merchant

Thank you everyone for joining Kimmie (players are on her sidebar) and the rest of us T Tuesday gals as we explore the world of tea drinking. Last Tuesday we saw the outside and learned a bit of its history. Now let's walk through the open side door of The Spice Merchant and see what's inside.

Look at this display of antique coffee and tea pots. Aren't they really intriguing? I could have taken photos of just this display all day long, but was on a mission, so had to move.

The mission was to buy some wonderful new teas that I had never tried before. After all, how can I have tea on Tuesday without wonderful, aromatic tea? I do, however, apologize for the really poor quality of the photos. I seemed to have a lot of trouble because there were so many people and I was horribly rushed while taking these.

So many teas, so little time. I picked out several of these.

and set them out for weighing and bagging. Yep, I succumbed to flavored tea. Simply couldn't resist blueberry (which is full of antioxidants) and cherry.

I had a hard time reaching the white tea I so wanted.

Here was my sweet server, who weighed the teas. After I had chosen 12, I went back and found more. While she bagged these and more I sat on the counter,

I took a look at some of the tea and kitchen paraphernalia they offered.

And just so I wouldn't have to leave my tea infuser in my 50's kitch ashtray, I bought a couple of these hand painted tea bag holders. I couldn't find an infuser, though. The only ones they had were the same style as my seriously ugly one.

I found even MORE tea I wanted, along with Pu'er, which Steph, who lives in Singapore, told us tea gals about during her first Tea Tuesday post.

and some with a genuine British flair I'll enjoy with warmed milk.

Then it was off to enjoy the lovely tea pots.

You name the style, they probably had it.

Tea pots were everywhere.

Many of them had unique shapes. Some even brought out a laugh.

All with the tea drinker in mind.

I was sad that I had chopped off the white tea pot. It has two cups built into its front. It was a very clever design.

The store was so busy, I didn't bother getting out my camera to take photos at the register, which is an eye candy feast in itself. And please don't even think about what the total bill was for FOUR POUNDS (yep, that's 64 ozs or 1.81 kg) of loose leaf tea. Suffice it to say, I could provide tea to a small country for a year for what this little venture cost. But it was truly worth the effort. Now one of these days, I'm going back for their coffee.

I hope you have enjoyed what was inside the Spice Merchant (old Mentholatum Building) as much as I did showing it to you. Have a lovely Tea Tuesday.

Today's tea blog is written by a Tea Master who lives in Taiwan, Stephane. Traveling all over the world, he shares his knowledge of tea with us mere mortals. I believe you will enjoy this tea blog that takes tea drinking to an entirely new level. Much like Steph (Purple Lotus Art our tea member who lives in Singapore), Stephane definitely knows the proper way to prepare and drink tea.